Sarah Hall's first novel is set in 1936 in a remote dale in the old county of Westmoreland, and tells of the flooding of the dale to make way for a reservoir, against the wishes of many of the local hill farmers. It is a story of love, obsession and the destruction of a community.
Haweswater
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Mardale, the remote British hamlet where Hall's remarkable debut novel is set, is a close-knit community of tenant farmers "where grand events and theatrical schemes rarely take place." So when a handsome stranger arrives in 1936, suspicions run high among the hardworking villagers. Jack Liggett is up-front about his plans for Mardale: he has come to inform the villagers that their homes would soon be at the bottom of a massive reservoir. According to Liggett, the dam associated with the project will be a "wonderful piece of architecture and engineering." But the villagers, who view the project as "so strange and vast that at first it was not taken seriously," resist, setting off a losing struggle between the insular community and the modern world. Caught in the middle is Janet Lightburn, the daughter of a local farmer, who begins a tempestuous and tragic romance with Jack. A Booker Prize finalist for her second novel, The Electric Michelangelo, (published in the U.S. in 2005), Hall is a talented writer, and though U.S. readers may have trouble with the phonetically rendered dialogue ("Twa Pund. Eh? Yan more ootstanding' "), the story, with its undertones of loss and grief, tugs at the heart. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Booklist
With no more than 30 habitations, the quiet English village of Mardale is the smallest of places. In 1936 its residents, mostly tenant farmers and laborers, live idyllically, almost separate from the rest of the world, herding cows, cattle, ponies, and sheep. When Jack Liggett, a waterworks company spokesman, arrives announcing that the blue-green Mardale valley is the future site of a dam (a wonderful piece of architecture and engineering, megalithic, inspired), Samuel Lightburn and the villagers struggle to comprehend not only the news of the project's vastness but their own displacement: "We cannot live underwater." Sharing thematic parallels with D. H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover, Commonwealth Award-winning Hall's outstanding debut novel is beautifully rendered and offers rich meditations on nature, community, passion, and love. Miriam Tuliao
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
lyrical, crafted writing with decent story,
By
This review is from: Haweswater: A Novel (P.S.) (Paperback)
As the first reviewer, I'll summarize the story, which is a fictionalized account of the construction of an actual dam called Haweswater in the Lake District of northern England, resulting in the flooding of a valley by the reservoir, and the loss of the community and its traditions. The water company, towns and other landmarks actually existed; the individuals did not and the timing also differs somewhat.
In 1936, Jack Liggett comes to town to prepare for the construction of the dam and the destruction of life as the locals know it. Some grudingly accept the inevitable and others hold out for a change in plans that never comes. The first 40 pages (the book is only 266 pages in paperback) set the scene of the hard, rural life and introduce Janet Lightburn and her family. Then Jack arrives to sell the plans and move the project forward, prepared to deal with the natives' resistance, and we get another view of local life from his perspective and his changing appreciation for what it offers. Jack isn't quite the elite city boy he appears to be. We can easily tell that Jack and Janet are headed for a relationship and that trouble will result. The author is not particularly light with the touch in describing Janet and her mother and their respective emotional turmoil. Hall is better with how Janet works closely with her father in the menial chores raising sheep and farming. The inevitable relationship seems a bit forced. After all, Janet is only 18 and Jack is 30-something, and, to be honest, not much happens between them other than passionate, rough rendevous. No introspective dialog or philosophizing about a life together, or even romance, for example. Eventually Jack and Janet's affair (he's married) becomes public, and it's also time for the locals to evacuate. A terrible accident occurs, setting in motion the rapid decline of one of our main characters and an explosive climax. Sarah Hall writes wonderfully, and her debut novel shows talent that could well lead to future, successful novels. (Her second novel was well-received.) Hall's love for the scene of Haweswater and respect for the rural life, its people and its tradition all come through clearly. Many passages are quite evocative and imaginative, although occasionally overwritten, when simpler language would have sufficed. I felt Janet's character was a bit much, too, pushed to a rather unrealistic position. Janet's father Samuel is a more sympathetic, stronger and better drawn character.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Pretty Writing, Lacked Sustenance,
This review is from: Haweswater: A Novel (P.S.) (Paperback)
The previous reviewer did a lovely job laying out the basic plot. Perhaps one of the flaws with the book was just how basic the plot was--with such a simple storyline, the author had to work very hard to include enough complexity to maintain a full-fledged novel. One place that could have used more complexity--likely improving the book as a whole--was the character development. There remained throughout the book a certain distance that I felt we never breached between the reader and the characters. Janet was difficult to know, as were her family members and certainly her love interest.
The writing, however, was nearly without exception very lovely to read. Her phrasing and descriptions are beautiful and original, and she translates her fascination with the place and time into interest for the reader. Without giving anything away, I have to admit that I found the ending somehow both predictable and disappointing. Worth reading for the lovely prose, and I expect that her second effort (I have yet to read it) will deliver more sustenance in terms of story.
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